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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Gemma Cardigan

I am very excited to announce that my first ever for-sale knitting pattern has just been published. Last month, I submitted three sweater designs to Knit Picks to be considered for their Independent Designer Program, and all three were accepted! Since then, I have been knitting, size-grading, and pattern-writing like madwoman. Gemma was the first to be finished, and it went live on the Knit Picks website this morning.

Gemma is a fitted cardigan with a circular yoke, waist shaping and simple lace at the collar and cuffs. There is also some subtle shaping going on right before the lace sleeve cuff in the form of some increases that create a tiny little puff. The lace is an adaptation of the Diamond Mesh Lace from Barbara Walker's (first) Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

This is one of those knits that is pretty simple, won't necessarily show off your intarsia/cabling/nupp-making skills, and, yes, contains a lot of Stockinette, but I'm pretty sure you can wear it with just about anything.

And being part of this new Independent Designer Program? A wonderful experience all around. Knit Picks was a joy to work with. They were responsive, fast, and extremely encouraging. Plus...the yarn rocks. I loved working with the Swish DK on this project.

Also, doing a for-sale pattern meant I was able to hire a Tech Editor, which was fantastic. I don't think I will ever go back to trying to edit patterns alone.

My amazing friend, Lefteris Tsironis, helped out with the photos when I made a visit to Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago. We had a lot of fun doing the shoot, and he spent who-knows-how-long processing and editing the photos that same evening. There are about one million more pictures of this sweater on my Flickr page. (And, yes, I'm smirking in almost all of them. It's because I'm self conscious, not because I'm feeling particularly pleased with myself, as a smirk often denotes.)

Also, a big thank you to everyone who reads and/or comments on this blog. Your encouragement and general warm-fuzziness are a big part of how I was able to muster up the courage to start trying to get my work out there!

And stay tuned for a couple more pattern releases in the next few weeks...

Hi Hillary, I've been following your blog for a while now. congratulations on the pattern release. The cardigan is so gorgeous, I won't be surprised if it quickly becomes the must-knit/classic among knitters. Looking forward to more of your releases

wowww! congratulations!! this pattern is very pretty and you are great! p.s. i knit since when i was fifteen, but ... now you are my GURU! :)i'll show you soon 2 works that i knit ispirated by yours.sara- magliamagia.blogspot.com

Hilary, that is such a gorgeous cardi!! I'm really happy for you- your designs are awesome, and it's wonderful to see your FOs and designs coming to life on your blog. Congratulations!! I know there will be many more published pattern in the future for you. :D

Congratulations! Love the details and much as I like the idea of sweaters with interesting techniques, the FOs I reach for are the stockinette ones. Checking out the KP program has been on my list - guess I'd better get on that.

I am in the middle of this cardigan and I must say it's the best pattern I've EVER worked with. Easy to read, with the stitch count after every decrease / increase. I've never made a cardigan before and I am SO PLEASED I chose this one first. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

Any ideas on how I could "draw in" the neckline on my Gemma? It is all done, but the neckline is way too big, the sweater keeps trying to slip off my shoulders and too much of my shirt underneath is showing. I like the cardigan, but that neckline has really stretched out too much. I used KnitPicks Cotlin to knit the sweater in the 40" size.

I just love the lace work at the neckline of this cardigan! My daughter has begged for it too! So, I purchased it off KnitPicks along with the yarns and was so anxious to start it. I have knit the neckline 3 times and the Diamond Mesh pattern is not working for me. Were there any corrections to that pattern? When I slip the stitches for ssk and sl1 I am slipping them as to knit. Is that correct? I appreciate any help with this as I really am anxious to knit this.

Hi Nancy -- I'm so sorry you're having trouble with the lace! No errors/corrections have been found with that part, but I'd suggest practicing the lace over a smaller number of stitches, maybe just one or two repeats, to test things out and figure out what you might be doing wrong. Sounds like you've got ssk just right.